Buffett's Optimism Rules: Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap (Monday 5/7/18)

There are lessons to be learned from Warren Buffett's biggest misses, Jim Cramer told his Mad Money viewers Monday, as Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A) (BRK.B) annual investor weekend came to a close. Those misses were Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL) .

Buffett remains one of greatest investors of all time, Cramer told viewers, and Buffett believes as Cramer does, that anyone can make money in the market by doing their homework and taking a long-term view. One of Buffett's biggest wins has been Apple (AAPL) , a stock which Cramer also owns for his charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS. Buffett saw early that Apple was a company with the best brand loyalty of anyone.

But Buffett missed the rise of Google and Amazon, likely because he didn't have an iPhone and didn't understand just how prevalent Google's Android would become. Buffett also likely didn't understand just how powerful the cloud would be in propelling Amazon far beyond just an online retailer.

Cramer said that Buffett may look back at his selling of IBM (IBM) as a similar mistake, as there's a great cloud story masked under IBM's legacy businesses.

Overall, however, Buffett's timing and his optimism have paid off big.

Estee Lauder's Looking Good

What can investors expect from a consumer packaged goods maker? A lot if it's Estee Lauder (EL) , the cosmetics maker that posted strong earnings last week, but saw its shares fall with the rest of the CPG names.

Cramer said Estee Lauder's earnings were a refreshing blast from the past, delivering earnings growth the old-fashion way: through innovation and market share gains. The company has been focused on all the right things, including international growth and younger, millennial customers who always want to look their selfie best.

Not everything was rosy on the company's conference call, Cramer admitted. The closing of BonTon stores will lead to some weakness, he said, and some false claims regarding the staying power of some of the company's products will need to be dealt with. But in a challenging environment for most CPG companies, Estee Lauder is a rare beacon of hope.

Spotify Didn't Deserve That

In the heat of earnings season, the market makes a lot of snap judgments and mistakes, Cramer reminded viewers. One of those mistakes was the 10% pummeling of Spotify (SPOT) after the company reported exactly what it told us it would.

It was only a month ago that Spotify debuted on Wall Street with what Cramer dubbed the "anti-IPO." Instead of pumping itself up to raise the most amount of money possible, Spotify instead did no self-promotion, creating an honest, and quite refreshing, first day of trading.

It should come as little surprise then that Spotify wasn't going to play the under-promise, over-deliver game with analysts as they reported their first earnings as a public company. Spotify forecast 168 million to 171 million users, and gave us 170 million.

This failure to blow away lowered expectations sent the fast-money investors packing, Cramer said, which only makes him like the stock even more now that shares have fallen from $170 to $150. Spotify is still a great story, he concluded.

Executive Decision: Whiting Petroleum

For his "Executive Decision" segment, Cramer welcomed Brad Holly, president and CEO of Whiting Petroleum Corpo. (WLL) , to the show to discuss the oil market and his stock's 70% gain so far this year.

Holly explained that Whiting continues to be focused on delivering double-digit production growth and that growth is reflected in their share price. He said that Whiting now averages just 10 days per well, which is half the time wells took just a few years ago. Whiting also hedges most of their production to help maintain their activity levels and ensure their great results.

Holly said that Whiting also actively manages their portfolio and is always looking for great acreage and long-term opportunities.

When asked about oil prices, Holly noted that the fundamentals of the oil market continue to be strong and demand continues to be strong, which is why they remain bullish on their outlook.

Executive Decision: Bank of America

In his second "Executive Decision" segment, Cramer sat down with Michelle Moore, head of digital banking at Bank of America (BAC) , to find out how this bank became a digital powerhouse.

Moore explained that her job is to give customers what they want and not what the bank wants. For Bank of America's younger customers, that increasingly means mobile banking. The bank saw more than 1.4 billion mobile logins last quarter, that's over 100 million a week.

Moore continued by saying it's not a question of digital versus branch banking, it's digital and branch because nothing can replace human interaction.

When asked about her background, Moore said that she's not a technology savant, she's a 15-year veteran with the bank with a degree in economics. What set her apart however was her dedication to the client experience and making it better.

The stock market moved higher Tuesday amid a stabilization in the Turkish lira, but TheStreet's founder and Action Alerts PLUS Portfolio Manager Jim Cramer urged investors not to get ahead of themselves.